UNDER SOUND UNDER (2007) A Jeff Talman Soundspace Installation at St. Lawrence Church, Klatovy, Czech Republic will open at 3 PM, June 2, 2007 and remain open until July 29, 2007.

As humans we tend to hear in a horizontal plane. Speech, music performance and TV and radio broadcast are ready examples of typically horizontal or near-horizontal listening situations. But the human ear can hear three-dimensionally, such that perceptions of different altitudes and depths of sound are possible. In UNDER SOUND UNDER different planes or strata of sound are made apparent in the installation. Further, sound motion from loudspeaker to loudspeaker across and between strata dynamically engages the space creating volume-field effects.

Riser platforms in the space offer a listening deck where listeners may ‘flatten’ the four-dimensional sound images by lying down. All sound activity then becomes face forward and above: the listener is now entirely under sound.

The sole sonic source for the installation is spatial resonance extracted from the silence (room tone) of the site and returned to the church in multi-channel sound. By enhancing this signature self-sound of the site the installation amplifies human intuitive notions of site and self “presence,” as rarely confronted aural senses of site-space become a plastic art medium.

Built in 1694-1700, St. Lawrence Church is now deconsecrated, serving as an art installation exhibition space only. Once or twice a year international artists are invited to produce work in this notable Baroque structure.